


The Conqueror's Vision

by the_heart_asks



Category: The Dark Crystal (1982), The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (TV)
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2020-12-31 14:40:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21147365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_heart_asks/pseuds/the_heart_asks
Summary: How the Conqueror came to have a vision of unity.





	The Conqueror's Vision

The Gruenaks in the far south were dead. Those soldiers who could were celebrating; the injured were recovering or dying in the healers' tents; the slaves were tending the cookfires and the damaged armor. The Conqueror walked the camp. He was restless as ever, but he was satisfied with the day's work. Of course he was; he himself had excelled in the battle, and his soldiers -- all quick and clever fighters suitable for the vanguard he led while the General marched behind and did the tedious mopping-up -- had done as well as one could expect from Gelfling. What else could he be feeling but satisfaction?

"Sir! I mean, my lord!" one of the youngest officers called out as he passed, saluting sloppily. She stood near one of the last tents in the main aisle, and she was listing against a marginally older female he vaguely recognized as one of the junior captains; her cheeks were bright red under their paint and her wings were fluttering lazily. "We won!"

The captain saluted quickly and much more neatly, despite the younger officer's weight against her side. "My lord! Please excuse her. She's not used to strong drink."

"I'm not drunk! And I'm only berry-dreaming a little," the younger officer -- a lieutenant, he thought -- protested. "Sorry, my lord."

"At ease, Lieutenant, Captain." He'd never had much patience for strict formality. "Take her to sleep it off."

"Of course, my lord," the captain said. "Thank you."

The lieutenant smiled widely, firelight gleaming off her teeth. "Hey! Sir, I mean, my lord! Do you want some wine-of-urdrupe? I have another skin I didn't drink out of."

"What?"

The captain put her hand over her friend's mouth. "Hush! No Skeksis needs any gifts outside of your tithe, and anyway he's obviously not Dousan! Sorry, my lord, I'm so sorry --"

He waved it away. "I've never heard of urdrupe."

The lieutenant began to pat her pockets down; the captain jerked her hand back with a sudden look of disgust and wiped her palm on her jacket. "You wouldn't have! Urdrupe only grows in the desert. Mostly only Dousan want it, so we don't tithe it or trade it. But it's good after battles because it makes the memories lighter, and wine is how you save it for traveling. It's a -- a haci -- halixagen -- ha-lu-cin --"

He scowled and fixed one eye on the lieutenant. "Spit it out, Gelfling."

"Hallucinogen!" the young lieutenant blurted, cringing, while all of the flush in her cheeks drained away. "It's a hallucinogen! Harla, please --"

"It is a hallucinogen, my lord, and more than that," the captain said, rubbing the lieutenant's shoulder softly. She looked slightly up and off as if reciting from memory. "Urdrupe, used correctly, is rain on the parched desert. It opens the shut mind. When the spirit is wounded, it draws out infection. It brings the death of self that is peace. To the wise it may grant knowledge needed, though rarely knowledge sought. At least, that's how we Dousan know it," she added, looking at the Conqueror again. "I believe it has different effects on Podlings, and most animals avoid it. I'm not sure what it might do to you, my lord."

"I, I found that skin. Do you want it?" The wineskin the lieutenant held out was made of leather, a net stained red with an unfamiliar dye knotted around it. It looked carefully crafted, though the materials weren't as fine as his own possessions, but the whole pouch was no larger than the still-shaking hand it was cradled in.

Gelfling drugs were rarely pleasant for Skeksis, but it seemed no one had tried this one yet, and new territory was the Conqueror's to explore. He extended his hand. The lieutenant began to smile again, a little more cautiously than before, as she passed it over. He pulled the stopper out; the odor was strong and astringent but not unpleasant, so he raised the little wineskin high.

The captain grabbed his wrist. "No! My lord, no! Only a sip --" The Conqueror reached up to break the offending hand, and then maybe the offending Gelfling too, but he wasn't in the camp anymore...

-

Another who was not other was adrift at that moment as well...

-

He awoke, consciousness sudden and sharp, in his own tent. He could hear a dozen voices arguing loudly in the antechamber. With him in the bedroom were the two most senior healers and one slave, the former arguing in whispers and emphatic gestures, the latter setting a small, steaming pot on the side table.

SkekGra fell out of bed in his haste, feet tangling in the neatly-tucked sheets. The slave started, knocked hot tea across the table, and screeched; the healers turned to him in unison and reached out as if to physically force him back into the bed before recoiling; half of his officers began streaming through the curtain.

"I'm perfectly well!" skekGra insisted, waving away the healers. He leaped to his feet. "I'm wonderful! I must return to the Castle of the Crystal -- and then the Wanderer -- but the Castle first -- slave, I need a landstrider saddled immediately, take a message --"

"My lord, that drugged wine --"

"My lord, the two Dousan who poisoned you --"

"My lord, we've kept the camp in order, but we need --"

"Silence!"

The babble died.

"I've had a wonderful vision from Thra! I must speak with the other Lords of the Crystal immediately. Where is my lone-travel bag... ?"

The Gelfling in the room did nothing but stare. Such slow, dull creatures! He opened a chest himself. Behind him, one of the healers took a deep breath. "My lord, we don't know what lingering effects that barbaric wine might have, especially in such great quantity. Please, for your own health, you must rest."

"Nonsense! I'm well. I'm better than I've been in more than five hundred trine. At last, I understand what -- well, that's not knowledge for Gelfling." He glanced over his shoulder. "Out, all of you! And hurry -- I need that landstrider!"


End file.
